After watching Bdubs' latest Building with BdoubleO episode (KABLAMMO!) I just wondered if he'd say anymore about the whole aspect of playing a character in his videos. I completely understand if he doesn't because it is a more behind-the-scenes thing but the more I started thinking about what he said the more interesting it became. I came up with a few questions:

Did you plan to play a character from the very beginning or did it just happen as you went along?

Playing a character can be more commercial (I don't necessarily mean that as a bad thing) on YouTube - has that ever come into play, especially since doing YouTube full time?

Does the real you (that sounds so stupid) ever come out on videos and for what reason?

Do you ever get tired of playing your character at times?

The reason I ask all these is compared to some other Mindcracker's I watch (e.g. Guude, Baj, Etho) they don't seem to play any sort of character (although I could be very wrong). Just a talking point is all.

I wouldn't put it into buckets of "real" vs "character...it doesn't work that way at all. We are all very real people, even when recording...but we are also entertainers. I would compare it to being the host of a very large party. You crank the intensity to 11, walk around more animated than usual, tell your anecdotes and do your party tricks. It's still you, it's just kicked up a few notches.

I've talked with bdubs a lot over Skype and hung out with him in person at Minecon. I can tell you this with all honesty: what you see is what you get. He's funny, goofy, silly, and sounds half-drunk most of the time. He's also very friendly, generous, and thoughtful towards others.

He may think he's playing a character because of the "Hell's Blazes" and "Get a ___ Job" stuff, but you can bet he's the same way when he's hanging out with friends and family IRL

Generik hit the nail on the head. I dont blame you for making 2 black and white categories of "real" vs character...because that basically what i did in the video. I have explained this more in depth in the past and just grazed over it in that video because i assumed most people would remember what i have said regarding this issue, but i forget that i probably have 100k more subs than i did then. I will address this further in the next BwB. But you must understand that those moments when im talking about life stuff and just chatting with you guys....its as real as it gets. I just tend to mix in characters when i play with guude and generik to keep things entertaining. Everyone has their preferences and can like or dislike a certain format but the reality is that we all play a role at some point. Etho traps and talks to creepers in the game. Do you think he would be found trapping stray dogs and talking to them on the street in real life? maybe ;)

I hear you, Dubs. People who have never done role-playing might have a harder time understanding. Being a huge olde goober does not mean that's the only side of you there is. Btw, you're good at that stuff, so keep it up. :)

I'm with you on this whole "Pursuit of the Real BDubs" thing. He's said that he plays a character before and the thoughts went through my head at the time, but I didn't ever decide to actually question it. I didn't have a forum to question it to though, so props to the Mindcrack reddit.

However I do have to say that pretty much any self that you portray online is a character. It might be who you want to be, it might not. More times than not you're never completely... genuine. Not the right word, but the only one I can think of. What I am trying to say is that Guude with us on the reddit might be a totally different Guude in Youtube videos or Guude with his daughter or wife or Guude by himself. And there's nothing wrong with that it's just the perception we have of him.

All that said, it does surprise me that BDubs kind of goes out of his way to "play the dummy," so to speak. Why choose that character? Why choose to be that when you could choose to be an Etho/Sethbling like redstoner? Or a chaotic cheaty Nebris? Or a forgotten Mykhol?

In conclusion, I really like Bdubs. He is my favorite guy to watch on the server, be it in his LP world or Mindcrack or goofing off with GenerikB on a map. I find him hilarious all of the time. But I would personally prefer the real BDubs I do believe and not just some character. Just my thoughts.

As an addendum, after reading what GennyB said; What I mean is that I would prefer that Bdubs feel okay being "real" than thinking himself a character.

I think they all play a character to some degree, even if it's only a slight exaggeration of who they really are. (I assume you're talking of BdoubleO's usual persona and not the mafia thing, but I haven't seen the video.) Of the three you mention I'm most familiar with Etho and he DEFINITELY plays up the whole ninja/Death Games thing; Zisteau invests a lot of effort into his pigman/prankster persona; all of them probably make an effort to speak and to present things in a certain way that may or may not come naturally, and so on. I'm not sure if BdoubleO actually does more of it than the rest do on average, or if he's just more aware of it or more interested in talking about it.

Personally I do enjoy the "lovable goofball" vibe that is what he usually shows us and it does seem a very comfortable fit for him, for whatever reasons. I don't for a second think that it's all that there is to him.

I think all entertainers play a "character" in a sense, if only in the way that you'd have to play up certain parts of yourself in order to make videos and such. I don't mean this in a "this is not who I am" kind of way, but in an "You see more of this part of my personality than perhaps my family does" kind of way.

And on the slightly philosophical side of things, we're all presenting a bit of a character to the world, if only because we cannot show all of who we think we are all at the same time. Different people are going to see different parts of you, and form a mental image of you based on only what they know of you. And most, if not all, of those people are going to think that their image of you is who you are, when in reality it's probably only a portion.

It's very tempting to think that the person we see in the video is always like that, which is why it seems a lot of people have trouble separating out the person from an acted role (see the occasional outrage over the B-Team stuff). I do it myself; I think it's just human nature. But really, even for those who seem to hide nothing, we just don't know what's going on when the camera is off.

For the record, BDubs in the video says "The real me is not this stupid idiot". And you know what? I've never seen him as an idiot. I see him as kinda silly, as occasionally drunk or in a situation where he's not sure what to do, but never as an idiot. In fact, he's always struck me as rather smart. So I guess further proof that the way we see ourselves won't always match with how others see us, even when contemplating what we're putting forth.

Genny mentioned in one of his post-Minecon episodes that everybody on the server is basically themselves, with nobody playing a character.

It doesn't make a difference to me either way, but I'd be interested to know why Bubs considers his Youtube persona to be exaggerated while others don't. Maybe he was just BdoubleO at Minecon, not John.

I'm not the same person with college buddies as I am with my wife. They overlap but they're very different. I assume Bdubs exaggerates some aspects of who he is for YouTube and reserves other parts of who he is for when he's AFK.

They just don't all notice? I mean, you can see the difference between his earlier goofing-around videos and his more modern calculated-entertainment ones. The most obvious example being his plethora of catchphrases.

Call me crazy here, but after a large exposure to BOO, I wander around going 'Hell's blazes!', 'Damn guy!' and other such BOOisms. I think its one of those things that once you start, you cant stop, and it sort of almost infects you. I know someone who does silly things to help cope with depression and loneliness when he is in his house by himself, but he will keep doing such silly things even when he isnt alone/depressed. Its just one of those things that might start off as a joke or something silly to entertain, but becomes so attatched to you it actually becomes part of who you are.

I'm exactly the same. I'm a 20 year old bartender and numerous times at work I've said "Hells Blazes!" or "Damn guy!" at work and haven't been able to explain to people where the hell it came from. I've even said "I ain't wearin' no dress!" when joking around with a regular that I'd look 'pretty' in one of my co-workers skirts.

Probably also due to the fact we don't call people 'guy' over here in Oz. Where Americans would use 'guy' we use 'mate'.

The real BdoubleO isn't really that different from the persona he portrays. He just takes the things people react positively to and then exaggerates them and sticks them in as much as possible. And yeah, the reason he does it is because it's more commercial (gets the attention of the kids and whatnot).

I would think that in regards to him "playing a character", it's not as if he's "not himself"; I'd estimate that at least half of what we see on screen is the real thing - it's just a few things may be a little more exaggerated (I don't personally know BDubs, so I don't know what parts would be).

As someone who delved into LPing for a short spell (and should really finish off the games he's left alone for six months), I would say start off being yourself, and then see where it goes. Me, I've always had a bit of an "online persona" (fairly facetious, doesn't take things 100% seriously, can easily laugh at himself), so I just developed over my time on YouTube.

That's not to say playing as a completely different person is a bad thing - Two of my favourite LPers are DeceasedCrab (in a phrase, PG-13 Large Ham) and SirRonLionheart (in a phrase.. just look him up, because I can't even) - but I would say, don't jump straight into it, else it can be easy to drop out of character.